Zerg early game needs help..or I do!

I'm having a horrible time defending myself early on with the zerg -- between losing lurks and not having hydras til later (usually right before I get stomped), I'm just not getting anywhere...I've played Zerg exclusively since SC Vanilla, and do know that the dynamics have changed a bit.

I started out trying to play as i did before -- without the units I used before, though, that got me whipped in about 10 minutes or less...always via marines and/or marauders.

Started using Queen to spawn larvae and held out for longer...even managed to win a couple (mainly because I manage to hold out long enough to nydus to another spot on the map, and the computer has yet to use air against me)...but I'm mainly getting demolished. And this is on easy!

My static defenses (spine crawlers) seem like they do nothing..they attack too slowly and die too quickly...and I've built 5 or 6 in addition to bunches of lings and some roaches.

Lings get taken out usually before they even reach the attacking marines..BLings do as well. I've tried burying them and exploding, but that does minimal damage. It seems like the marines can take more damage (even before the shield upgrade) while my lings are the same or weaker.

Roaches helped a bit, but not much...they get taken out too..just slower than zerglings.

I usually don't even get to a point where i can afford hydras....

So what am I doing wrong? I think my play style is better suited to terran (I've won both of my two games using them -- even on the medium setting), but it feels like zerg is underpowered.

Units move faster on the creep for example -- this is phrased as a bonus, when it seems like they move normally on the creep and slow off of it. I know there's strength in numbers, but to create the amount of units I'd need to fight off the 15 - 20 marines I'm facing, I'd have no money to even consider anything else but building units.

Can someone (anyone) toss (hehe -- toss!) me some ideas? I'm on the verge of just switching to terran! I'm hoping they bring the hydras back down to T1 or 1.5 or power up the lings..or make base D faster or something! It just seems like the zerg are outclassed in all respects early on.

 

I suspect you are not building enough drones, make sure you build up to 10 drones right away, go read the zerg part of the forums and look for the 10/9/10 strategy. Once you get enough drones you will have more money and you should get a second hatchery and a queen up quickly and start mass unit production. Roaches should easily defeat most early game units. Perhaps watch a few replays to see how people start.

 

a good strategy is to build drones (and an overlord) until u are at 14 supply.

Get a spawning pool at 14, and put a hatchery in ur natural expansion at 15.

Get a queen and some gas. Move your queen between the two hatches to use her spawn larva ability. Get a baneling nest, and pump out banelings and zerglings.

Once Terran moves in on you with his marines, wipe his whole army with banelings, then clean up him and his base with lots of zerglings. With the economy from the 2nd hatch u should be able to pump out these by the masses.

Banelings absolutely destroy bio armies (which sounds like what the Terran computer is going for)

If he's rushing you too fast for that strat to work, get the pool at 10, the overlord at 9 and then the queen at 10. get some early gas, and make sure u get banelings asap. I cannot emphasise enough how much banelings will waste a marine army.

 

Zerg's definitely not underpowered any longer. Watch some Zerg videos or wait for me to pick out a build order for it! LOL

 

Or stop playing hacked versions of the game, since the real thing only has the very easy AI. Go play against people. ^^

 

The Starcrack AI is actually pretty decent. On hard level they can be relatively decent opponents, and they do do some original things. But it really can't compare to the real thing.

Still, not a bad place to start learning things like BOs and timings.

 

^^ What subversion said!

Besides that, if I can't even beat the computer, I'd get destructified by any reasonably skilled human being!

I've been running with 10 pool, but 14 might help -- and i figure im nopt expanding fast enough to boot, though to be fair, its nearly impossible to generate the number of units i'd need to fight off the first wave just concentrating on pumping units...adding an expo to the mix would spread me pretty thin, i think.

but hey, its worth a try! I REALLY do want to like the zerg.

As it stands, i go 10 drones (one scouting) then ovie then pool, then i pump drones for a bit so i can at least start mining gas and get mostly 2 drones per min patch -- this allows me to start pumping lings and some roaches...but they all just get wiped out!

 

Either you're not making drones constantly early game or you're just running your lings around while the marines kill them. It's essencial you have 2~3 drones on each mineral patch. I suggest you watch A LOT of replays and build orders ( http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13426 ). Often I have to face with zergling rushes and they're not that easy to defend.

 

This build works like a dream on Bnet for me usually so I'll lay it out for you:

1. Build drones until you have 10/10 supply and then let them mine until you have 200 minerals in the bank.
2. Grab a drone off your mineral line and make a Spawning Pool behind your minerals (better defended).
3. Make another drone and queue to mine minerals (as your supply dropped back down to 9/10 after dropping the Spawning Pool).
4. Now you're at 10/10 again make an Overlord.
5. Grab a drone off your mineral line and drop an Extractor.
6. Build another drone and put it on minerals.
7. Overlord is now built - make 3 drones and queue them all to mine gas from your Extractor when they hatch.
8. Build Queen.
9. Grab drone off mineral line and drop a spine crawler next to your hatchery (like right up against the side of it for good base coverage).
10. From here you can either opt to drop a Roach Den, make lings, or make more drones to improve your economy.. its your call =)

Hope this helps

- Oz

 

Thanks guys! I started using the 10 drone (11 with extractor trick) then pool, ovie and queen -- between that and pumping banelings (they CAN work!) I managed to beat the comp...my last game i even took the fight to them!\

My zergitude is saved!

 

I suggest you try out and practice different builds as knowing only one build might not work all the time.

 

Worry less about trying to make Spine Crawlers and more time getting your fast expansion up. Get a queen at each expansion and spawn that larvae once in awhile. I never get zerglings until I see the enemy in range of my natural expansion because they spawn relatively quickly.

I would recommend scouting out the enemy base so you know what build the enemy is going so you know how to counter the enemy. If he is Protoss and is going a gas heavy build he is most likely going Colossus or heavy stalker. Which then you should upgrade zerglings with speed and also get roaches to deal with the stalkers.

In any case it all comes down to how you micro and attack with your units. Lets say if you have Hydralisks and Zerglings. You would want to send in your long ranged units first and then swarm your Zerglings in so they aren't the first to get targeted. Zerglings would just surround the enemy and decimate.

 

Great advice RE the Crawlers -- the minerals i'd have to use to have the number of them i'd need to be helpful could build me too hatcheries and some lings....I guess i got so comfortable with sunkens in BW that I figured crawlers would be as effective!

I've been doing LOTS better since taking some of you alls advice -- about the only issue I've had is fighting off the zerg -- i'm going to have to watch and see how the comp does -- it hit me with a mass of roaches pretty early and i just barely stopped it! I need to be able to do that!

I'm liking lings a lot now -- speed upgrade is essential, and the way they can surround and take out enemy units is awesome! i'm also really loving the Nydus worm..it's the best thing since breathing!